5 convicted of murder, attempted murder in California Halloween party shooting

Five gang members were convicted by a jury Wednesday, Nov. 15, of killing three men and injuring nine other people in a shooting at a Halloween-themed house party in Long Beach four years ago where they mistakenly believed rival gang members would be in attendance.

Jeremy Penh, 29, David Long, 23, Kaylin Thik, 24, Ryan Sim, 22 and Grant Johnson, 39 kept their heads straight ahead as guilty verdicts were read for three counts of first-degree murder and nine counts of attempted murder in Long Beach Superior Court.

The jury needed about five hours to reach a verdict after a trial that lasted over a month. The panel also found true special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and that the defendants were active participants in a criminal street gang and gun allegations against Long, Thik and Sim, who were identified by prosecutors as the shooters in the shooting on Oct. 29, 2019.

The next court date for the five men is Jan. 29, when they may be sentenced.

The verdicts were read in front of a packed courtroom of relatives for both defendants and victims as well as Long Beach police detectives.

Killed in the gunfire were Melvin Williams II, 35, of Gardena, Ricardo Torres, 28, of Inglewood and Maurice Poe Jr., 25, of Long Beach. Of the nine injured, one woman was left paralyzed from the chest down.

The party, held to celebrate a birthday at a house in the 2700 block of East Seventh Street, was attended by coworkers of the Hollywood Park Casino and their friends and relatives. One of the three fatal victims, Torres, was an employee.

None of the attendees at the party were gang members, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said eight men, including the five on trial, planned and executed the shooting, traveling in tandem in three SUVs from North Long Beach to the Rose Park neighborhood house, where party attendees had just stepped out into the backyard after being told to huddle inside for 15 to 20 minutes.

The three shooters were in a Toyota 4Runner driven by Penh, who dropped them off in an alley behind the home. At least two of the shooters jumped on top of a brick wall and fired at a downward angle toward the crowd of about 30 people, according to evidence presented during the trial.

The men shot up the party thinking rival gang members would be in attendance. None of the attendees were associated with gangs, prosecutors said.

Sim testified last week that he was the lone shooter and that he asked Penh to drop him off in the alley, with Thik joining for backup, after Sim remembered being jumped there by rival gang members five years prior.

But prosecutors said the shooting stemmed from a perceived gang slight. Penh and a friend, Timmy Ngoy, had lunch earlier in the day when Ngoy asked Penh if he’d like to attend the party.

Penh declined because he said he didn’t like the party’s host, Daniel Chan, whom Penh said had “disrespected his hood” in a video posted online.

Penh and the other seven men met at an apartment complex in the 5800 block of Brayton Avenue, where one of the participants, Joshua Sam, testified that Penh believed rival gang members would be at the party and told everyone what their roles would be in the shooting, including that Sam would wait for the three shooters to enter his PT Cruiser and that he would drive them to safety.

Johnson was seated in the passenger seat in the PT Cruiser and yelled out the gang’s name while the three shooters ran to the SUV, Sam testified.

While on their way toward the house, prosecutors said Penh called Ngoy over Facebook Messenger and told him to go inside, then called back again to ask why he told all the other party attendees to go inside. Ngoy told Penh that the party was for coworkers and no gang members were present, but Penh hung up.

Defense attorneys argued that witness accounts of the shooting that night did not match up with there being three shooters and that independent witnesses told investigators they saw at least one Black man running in the alley after hearing gunshots, but the three identified as shooters were Asian.

They also attempted to discredit the testimony of Sam by pointing to his criminal and drug history and a jailhouse call to his mother where he said he “rehearsed” what he was going to say to prosecutors with his attorney.

Some of the defendants also made incriminating statements in recorded jailhouse conversations with undercover agents, including the gang monikers of the three shooters and how the operation was planned.

The three guns used in the shooting were never found, but evidence presented at trial showed that one of them was used in a pair of shootings months later. Prosecutors accused Penh of selling the guns.

Sam and two others, Christopher Williams and Danny Sourn, took plea deals before trial. Williams was sentenced to 19 years in state prison, while Sourn, who was involved in a separate murder case, was sentenced to 25 years to life. Sam’s plea agreement would land him a 17-year sentence  if it’s determined he testified truthfully.